New project planned to reconfigure Peterborough street dogged by parking issues during school pick-up and drop-off times
A new project has been launched with the goal of making the streets of two Peterborough safer during pick up and drop-off time.
Work has begun an an area wide project to make the streets around Discovery Primary Academy and Queen Katharine Academy safer for all.
There have long been issues, disputes and safety concerns raised along Mountsteven Avenue, where both schools are located next to each other, particularly around pick-up and drop-off time.
With these issues growing, action has been taken and a new project has been launched to look at potentially redesigning the area and introducing new measures designed to ease some of the problems.
This is a joint-venture between Paston and Walton ward councillors, Peterborough City Council, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and the Wheel Cycle Trust.
The first in-person consultation was launched on Monday (September 21) in which parents and residents were asked for their experiences of the road network in the area, not just on Mountsteven Avenue but in the area of Walton as a whole.
Residents raised a number of issues, including a difficulty finding parking spaces, inconsiderate parking and the speed of cars.
A large number in attendance of the resident engagement day expressed their support for a safer school zone, which would see the road closed to traffic during defined times around the start and end of the school day. Similar schemes are in operation elsewhere in the city.
Paston and Walton ward councillor Alex Rafiq said: “We have had long-standing issues in the ward with parking and anti-social behaviour. This will form part of a wider consultation. We are potentially looking at creating a safer-school zone.
"We’ve had lots of complaints raised about people parking on junctions, on public footpaths and a bit of anti-social behaviour where people have been asked to move and causing arguments.”
Among the ideas that will be considered are new types of crossings (zebra, parallel, continuous and informal), wider and smoother pavements, bicycle racks, benches, lighting as well as street art and other street design features.
The project is currently in the consultation stage. Designs will begin to be drawn in towards the end of the year and initial designs for the whole neighbourhood are anticipated to be presented in the spring on summer of 2027.
The Wheel Cycle Trust said: “We are getting feedback from the local community, which will be used in inform designs we will develop to improve the highway layout and improve safety.
"We want to provide better infrastructure for other forms of transport to discourage having to drive in the first place. That is a really good way to tackle the issues with parking.
"We will look at reduced speed limits as well as perhaps some timed restrictions.
"We want to look at a whole neighbourhood project. We’re not just looking at the immediate street but the whole area and the whole journey that the children make.”